TBL - English5th-10th grade: First session

Task types: what do tasks look like?

• Jigsaw task: put information together - e.g. piece picture, recipe, text together

• Information gap: share information to solve task; e.g. find way on map

• Problem solving: use information to solve problem; e.g. find cheapest phone or quickest way (everyone has the same text/information)

• Decision making: use shared information to make common decision; e.g. make a dream holiday, travel brouchure…

• Opinion cleft: use information to establish discussion/dialogue

Make your word – a language task

Words can be changed, using prefixes and suffixes:

• Prefixes: super- (super-human), un- (un-real)….

• Suffixes: -able (control-able), -ly (warm-ly), -ed (interest-ed)….

Try out how many pre- and suffixes you can find! (for help, try words like friend , interest, play, employ)

Task design: Lynne Cameron

• Cameron’s model of Task design (2002) involves 3 phases (pre- while and post-task)

• Her model also involves 4 key aspects:

Learning goals

Activities

Demand

Support

Lynne Cameron: Learning goals

• Pre-phase: often centres on core vocabulary necessary for the Task, core language structures (questions/answers, key sentences, gambits) – and creating motivation for the Task.

• While-phase: often same language goals as in pre-phase + using strategies to communicate in the foreign language in a situation

• Post-phase: that learners become aware of the language they have used in the Task – e.g. checking core vocabulary, language structures and taking time to reflect on language points that came up. Appreciation of learner products/output also plays a part here

Lynne Cameron: Demand

• Pre-phase: often involves learning new words and understanding the Task

• While-phase: often the demands here are connected with communication – obstacles that stop learners from communicating during the core activity/Task

• Post-phase: demands here often involves meta-language – knowing words to talk about language; recalling vocabulary and storing information.

Lynne Cameron: Support

‘Support’ includes pictures, handouts, glossaries, model texts, teacher advice – in short any help that can make learners meet the demands

• Pre-phase: often flashcards, pictures, explaining meaning of words, saying words out loud, spelling them, providing examples. Activities here should be fun

• While-phase: dictionaries, model texts, handouts with lines/dialogue, etc. Whatever helps learners stay active during the core activity/Task

• Post-phase: Learning logs, exercises, crossword puzzles, classroom/pair reflection time

Task example: Superheroes

• Pre-work: knowing the genre – knowing the task. Presentation and brainstorm

• While-work: making the story of the character – presenting to others.

• Post-work: focus on form: on-demand language support. Notes for ”My language diary” and summation

Pre-work: Superheroes as storytelling

Creating a superhero character involves establishing the genre

• Genre requirements:

- The basic drive is Fairytale/Fantasy – the fight between good and evil

• Character requirements:

- Characters must obey the Magic Code (Nicolajeva 1988): supernatural elements have a limit; for every spell, there is a counterspell. Even Superman is weak in the face of kryptonite.

- Superheroes as magic characters are defined by powers, mission and identity (Coogan, 2006)

Case in point: Batman

• Powers: has no supernatural powers, but instead a lot of gadgets. His brains, money and physical training together make up his powers.

• Mission: to fight crime in Gotham City – motivated by the murder of his parents when he was a boy.

• Identity: Batman/Bruce Wayne. Batman is masked and cloaked to conceal Bruce Wayne’s identity. Wayne deliberately cultivates a private identity as a superficial upperclass playboy far from Batman’s actions in back alleys.

While-work: create character

• Start out by brainstorming your character: draw, act out - if it helps

• Then make HERO CARD together: key words are OK – as long as you can remember and re-tell the character’s story later

While-work: present character

• Carrousel feedback: Get feedback from others!

• Feedback Criteria:

- powers, mission and identity: do they make an interesting character?

Post-work: language focus

• Take a moment to reflect with your partners: which langauge issues came up when making the HERO CARD and when presenting it?

• Issues might involve:

- spelling, pronunciation, grammar,

- unknown words, words with new meaning, phrases you haven’t heard before

• Write down notes on the back of HERO CARD

Issues that came up

Condition: a need for differentiation

• Learners 5th – 10th grade in English have communicative competences in English that vary over a very wide spectrum.

• Looking at the competence goals (both new FFM and former FM), there is a clear expectation that learners enter the Fluency Phase during the intermediate stage (5th-7th grade) and break into the Sophistication Phase during the advanced stage (8th-10th grade. A relatively small number of learners do not meet this expectation; most learners do.

• The basic premise for 5th-10th grade English teachers is therefore that a) the goals are fairly ambitious; b) the learners’ competences vary greatly and c) expetancy and actual performance are both high

What does that mean for TBL?

• That understanding and negotiation of meaning are often challenged by uneven relationships

• That intensive training in tasks is often highly modelled at beginner/early intermediate stages, while there is an increasing focus on spontaneous use of language throughout late intermediate and advanced stages

• That evaluation and post-task work often needs to be individualized